ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The Rank Organisation was an English entertainment company founded by J. Arthur Rank in 1937. It soon became one of the largest and most vertically integrated production and film distribution companies in Britain, owner of production, distribution and projection activities. It also diversified in the production of radio receivers, televisions and copiers (the latter as a shareholder of Rank Xerox). The name of the company lasted until 1996, when the name and some other activities were acquired by the management company of the game The Rank Group. The emblem of the company, a stylized man who plays a gong, used for the first time in 1935 by the subsidiary General Film Distributors, exposed with the opening titles of the films produced by her, became an icon.

History

Origins
J. Arthur Rank was already a wealthy industrialist, thanks to his father Joseph Rank Ltd.'s molitorian activity, when he began an unusual activity: the production of films of religious subject in accordance with his Methodist faith. From these modest origins, the British film production company Rank emerged in 1937.

Growth
The company grew rapidly, thanks also to large acquisitions. Significant developments were:

1938 – Purchase of the British chain of Odeon Cinemas
1939 – Acquisition of Denham Film Studios, merged with Pinewood Studios, already partly owned by Rank, and with Amalgamated Studios in Borehamwood.
1941 – Purchase of the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, which was also the owner of Gainsborough Pictures, 251 cinemas and Lime Grove Studios.
1942 – The British premises of Paramount Pictures are purchased
End of the 1940s – the majority of Allied Cinemas and Irish Cinemas Ltd were reached, conquering the place of the largest chain of cinema venues in Ireland (a mainstay until the early 1980s)

For the end of the 1940s, J Arthur Rank (through the Rank Organisation), owned:
The five major studio complexes, Pinewood Film Studios, Denham Film Studios, Ealing Studios, Lime Grove Studios and Islington Studios. (The studios at Lime Grove were sold to BBC Television in 1949. )
650 film screening rooms (Odeon, Gaumont and Paramount chains), plus some international holding companies, including Canadian and Dutch subsidiaries
General Film Distributors (later Rank Film Distributors), including UK distribution rights at Universal Pictures
Rank Screen Advertising
The DeLuxe Laboratories
1966 - Rank Xerox - Joint venture together with the Haloid Photographic (Xerox Corporation) of America, to produce and promote the sale of its range of photocopying equipment. Many assets of the decadent film company were franticly transferred to the services of Ra